


You Gonna Help, Huh?

by Myrtle



Series: But It's The Other Way: Happy Endings That Might Have Been [1]
Category: The Wire
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Foster Care, Gen, Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-20
Updated: 2013-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-05 03:54:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1089325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Myrtle/pseuds/Myrtle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carver fosters Randy. Making it work isn't easy, but it isn't as hard as doing nothing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Gonna Help, Huh?

It isn’t easy. Of course it isn’t. He never thought it would be easy, but he figured it couldn’t be as hard as feeling the way he felt when it seemed like he was leaving the kid forever. He figured it would be easier at least to know he was doing _something._

There are times when he isn’t so sure.

It takes three months to get certified, three months of endless paperwork and classes that depress him with the things they feel the need to teach (like, no shit you can’t leave the stove on with a toddler in the house, how about teaching him how to make sure a thirteen-year-old isn’t dealing on the side?), three months of waiting, hoping, doubting, but three months that, in most respects, are no different from his normal life.

Randy isn’t so lucky. For him they are three months of fear, of being the only person in your house doesn’t feel like killing something every day, of being scared to go to sleep cuz you don’t know if you’ll still have all your stuff in the morning, of cold oatmeal and soggy sandwiches, of not having a single friend. Randy doesn’t tell him any of this, of course, but he can pick it up from phone calls where his voice is always strangely flat, from emails that ask how soon Carv can take him just a little too desperately.

Carver doesn’t go see him during the three months, because he figures having a potential foster father (not that he ever uses that word, not even in his head, it’s too terrifying) hanging around won’t do the kid any favors in the group home, and, honestly, because he can’t bear to set foot in that place again.

But when it’s finally all settled, and he goes to pick Randy up, he immediately regrets not seeing him, because he barely recognizes this person. This… _young man,_ barely a kid, who is just a little taller but muscular, harder, who trudges out of the home like he doesn’t care where he’s going.

They get in the car silently, and the only thing Carver can think is that this would be a lot easier if he could have a beer right now, but of course he can’t. But he remembers something the kid liked, months ago, and figures that’s the next best thing, so he offers, “I bet you could go for a strawberry soda, huh?”

And, thank Christ, he was right; Randy looks at him, dead-eyed for just a second, and then grins, _that_ smile, the one that made Carver know he’d do whatever he could for this kid. And Carver grins back, and they peel out of that parking lot without a backward glance, and they both think, _Maybe this will work._

Making it work isn’t easy. Most nights, all Carver wants when he gets home is a beer and some ESPN, and all of a sudden he has a whole other life to deal with in the evenings. The first couple weeks are bizarre, with Randy not seeming to really believe Carver actually wants him there, and both of them tiptoe-ing around each other on their best behavior. But eventually the honeymoon ends, and that’s even weirder, because Carver has to act like a responsible adult, like someone who is qualified to be in charge of another person’s life, to tell that person what he can and can’t do, which, what the hell? Making some kind of vaguely nutritious dinner, and enforcing chores, and homework (and how are you supposed to help with essays when the kid barely learned basic grammar?), and trying to decide if it’s ok for him to play video games, all this shit is _exhausting._

 

Fitting the kid into the rest of his life isn’t easy. He’s pretty sure his career suffers; he just doesn’t put as much effort into his paperwork as he should, and doesn’t stay late even when he could get OT, because it suddenly seems so much more important to be home. When he gets passed over for Lieutenant, he knows why, but honestly he finds it hard to care. He doesn’t hang out with Herc or the other guys as much either, because when the hell would he, but he misses them less than he thought he would. Hardest of all is girls. He has no idea how to explain to dates that he can’t go out on Thursday because,  
 _I have to go to Parent-Teacher Night for my…_   
Oh, you have a kid? That’s sweet! How old?   
_No! No…the kid who lives with me…he’s thirteen, we’re not related, I’m his…I’m fostering him, he was in a case I worked, it’s…it’s complicated. He’s a good kid._   
And then he doesn’t know what to say, and she doesn’t know what to say, and, well. Who has time for all that?

 

But what’s easy is when he finally introduces a girlfriend to Randy, and she can’t stop smiling at him, at both of them, and he can tell she gets it.

What’s easy is watching bad horror movies together on late-night TV, and cracking up at all the same things.

What’s easy is conferences at the new school filled with phrases like “enormous progress” and “looking forward to high school,” and feeling better than if the praise were describing himself.

What’s easy is the first time Randy calls him Dad. It slips out by accident, and they’re both silent and still for a second, and then Carver smiles, and says goodnight and turns out the light like it’s the most normal thing in the world, and it seems to become Randy’s new favorite word.

What’s easy is reading “Randolph Wagstaff, Honors” in the high school commencement program, over and over and over, and almost not believing it, and realizing he’s never been happier in his life.

**Author's Note:**

> Of course, my reaction to finishing The Wire was to write ridiculous everything-magically-works-out fic. These two just kill me. This will probably be followed by other happy ending AUs for various characters.


End file.
